I wanted to ignore the inevitable Max Mosley stuff over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend and concentrate on the racing (at least, what little there was that passed for racing).

Pressure continues to grow on the FIA president to quit with sporting bodies shunning him and the teams considering making an official statement criticising him, and most importantly, Bernie Ecclestone turning against him.

The Israel episode

While attending the inaugural Jordan on Friday Mosley received an official invite to Israel by the country’s Minister of Science, Culture and Sport, Galeb Majadle. This could have been a significant step in the rehabilitation of the president in the public eye, not least because of the claimed Nazi overtones in the notorious video.

But within a few hours of the news becoming public the Israelis issued a public statement withdrawing the invitation:

The Minister, who was not at all aware of the scandal currently surrounding Mosley’s name, would like to make it now clear that his invitation was not intended to be personal to Mosley himself but rather to the representative of the FIA as a global organization.

In any event, once the scandal was brought to the Minister’s attention, he has requested to withdraw immediately any official invitation to Mosley until the matter is reviewed more thoroughly once back in Israel.

The phase “withdraw immediately” was highlighted in the original release. Mosley stuck to his explanation:

I fully understand the Minister?ů‘ťľ‘šůs position and look forward to resuming contact with him when the News of the World?ů‘ťľ‘šůs deliberate and calculated lies have been comprehensively refuted.

But any argument that the scandal is not interfering with his ability to do his job can surely not stand up in the face of this.

The teams’ discussion

The leaders of the teams met with Bernie Ecclestone on Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix to discuss a response to the crisis in the FIA leadership.

According to Autosport the majority of them were concerned about the consequences for F1 of the Mosley scandal, but could not agree on what statement to make about it.

Although the owners of the BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda teams have made their feelings clear on the matter the teams themselves have not said anything.

Disagreement at Ferrari?

Fearrari’s former team principal Jean Todt, who has been widely tipped to succeed Mosley, unsurprisingly voiced support for him:

If you ask me if I’m happy with the actions of the president of the FIA since he’s been in office, I think he does a very good job. Therefore I hope he will have the opportunity to carry on his work for several more years.

President Luca di Montezemolo was more cautious:

I don’t like talking about other people’s personal issues. I prefer not to comment either in my name or Ferrari’s, since there are already too many censors and judges at large.

The lighter side

It must be hard being a monthly print magazine in the days of 24/7 internet coverage. The latest issue of F1 Racing came out quite a while after the scandal had broken so editor Hans Seeberg decided to restrict coverage of it to just his editorial:

We think you might be a bit border of orgies too, so we’ve decided to give it all a miss and concentrate on what really matters.

A noble sentiment and I certainly empathise with their distaste for the whole affair. But would these principles have reigned if they’d had a new scoop on the story? I doubt it.

"to cut the cost of F1 we will add a whole new module with lots of moving parts that F1 teams know nothing about and make them spend money to implement it so they can have an extra movable part on their cars to go wrong during racing…… THEREBY PROMOTING OVERTAKING"

Noel, I actually know¬†quite a bit¬†about kinetic¬†energy regeneration¬† and the proposed F1 KERS; in fact, I am heavily involved in a company innovating and developing KERS technology for various automotive applications, including F1. I have asked Keith if I¬†might write an article explaining the various KERS technologies and opportunities¬†and¬†he thought it’d be a good idea, so watch this space.

Sush – KERS is hybrid technology. ¬†The FIA allows electric, hydraulic, flywheel or any other¬†mechanism to recapture energy normally lost as heat during friction braking and store it for later use, in F1’s case for shorts bursts of acceleration when needed.¬† Flywheels have got a lot of publicity lately but they are by no means the only way to achieve an effective and efficient KERS. ¬†My personal opinion is that flywheel technology will not be the answer, but we’ll get to that later…

Journeyer – As I’ve just said, they are many ways to achieve a KERS and the FIA have put no restrictions whatsoever on any technology, so the teams can have no gripe as to limits regarding experimenting. The limits imposed are to do with the amount of power generated and the outputs into and out of the power storage medium, and these power restrictions will be raised in time and as the technologies mature.

Regarding Max and his "contributions" to safety: Hitler constructed the Autobahns and Mussolini made the trains run on time. Anyone want to give those two despots a pass for whatever "good" they did? An extreme comparison certainly, but of a similar path. Whatever legacy Max thought he was leaving "behind" is certainly tainted by his "personal" perversions, isn’t it.

GeorgeK, any comparison of Mosley with Hitler and Mussolini is totally bizarre and way off base. Whatever Max did in that brothel, it was between consenting adults and nobody died.¬† Had Hitler’s or Mussolini’s only crime been having kinky sex with a few hookers no one would have cared.¬†

Green Flag, while it may be ture what happened is between consenting adults, andmany have said just that, it’s far from being private now. That horse left the barn long ago and ain’t going back. That line of argument is stale, over and past it’s prime.

Sush –¬†An engine flywheel is, obviously, connected to the engine shaft¬†and¬†rotates at engine speed, which is a) too slow (maximum 19,000 rpm according to F1 rules), and b) slows down with the engine. The F1¬†flywheels¬†employed to store kinetic energy, such as being developed by Flybrid Systems and the new Williams Hybrid Power Ltd., spin at between 60,000 and 100,000 rpm.

Since this has turned into a bit of a debate about S&Max’s saftey record, I thought that I’d add in that the real poster boy for safety in F1 is Sir Jackie.

Not Mad Max.

And I would further argue that ANYONE who was FIA President for the last fourteen years or so would have introduced the same safety initiatives Mad Max did – and possibly even more into the bargain. They’d have been out on their ear if they didn’t.

So really, S&Max only did what he had to. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

Pink is as right as it gets. Jackie was the first to have the stones to get vocal about safety, when everyone was aware of the danger, but none had the courage to speak up, whereas Max followed an obvious need and demand.

Max Mosley¬†was being charitable when called the whiny git a certified half-wit; on his best day Stewart might make a third-wit. Wasn’t Sir Jackie the little coward who retired from racing when his teammate Cevert was killed at the Glen? Thought so.¬† Motor racing, especially F1, is dangerous. If it weren’t my granny could be champion. That’s why only those with big balls need apply. Just hearing Stewart’s name makes me want to vomit.